“If it can’t be measured, kill it.”

If you consider yourself a fairly data-driven person…

This may be the most important message you’ve read in a while – if ever.

Let me explain:

After 18 years, Nike – the swoosh itself – is being removed from the S&P 100 due to substantial financial and stock underperformance.

(It’s down 80%+ since the 2021 peak.)

And it’s not surprising why:

• They announced John Donahoe as the CEO in 2020 – a soulless, data-driven consultant who has never seen a court or running track up close…
• He went “all-in” on the Direct-to-Consumer channel, while, in turn, pretty much destroying & betraying a multitude of 20+ y/o retail distribution partnerships.

(e.g. Foot Locker, DSW, Urban Outfitters.)

• Which allowed competitors – like Hoka – to swoop in and fill the distribution gap left by the spreadsheet merchant.
• He laid off a bunch of creative people who, by the nature of their job, couldn’t prove any of their ideas work with hard data.

(What could they possibly know? Nike’s empire was only built on the back of folks like those!)

• Brag how your decisions are “working” to the shareholders on Earnings Calls… for about 18 months. Even the sacrosanct data is now showing a disaster looming.
• Ummmmm… what now?
• The board takes over and fires the spreadsheet merchant CEO – which shouldn’t have been there in the first place – and brings in a veteran who’s been with Nike since day one.
• The new guy tries his best, but the damage is already done.
• Drop out of the S&P 100… and go down in history as the greatest example of “data-driven” zealots destroying one of the most successful creative brands of all time.

This is the future for many companies – supplements or otherwise.

Data-driven addicts – who have no understanding of the off-balance-sheet qualities which keep the company going – will slowly (or quickly, as is Nike’s case) drive everything into the ground. 

This has always been an issue – the great “Tyranny of Metrics” book covers this soup-to-nuts.

However:

It’s gotten quadratically worse since the emergence of AI.

If the digital era and easier tracking is match… the dashboard-and-attribution craze the kerosene-soaked rag… then AI is the atomic bomb with a drunk president’s finger hovering over the button.

But maybe not all’s doom & gloom:

Because when your competition is busy shooting themselves in the foot?

Your job gets easier – it’s easier to stand out… be remembered… and inspire action.

Kind of like my Email Storyselling-esque emails.

For instance, I don’t ever A/B split-test emails.

Why?

Because, with the Email Storyselling approach, you email DAILY.

My approach considers the fact that email is a medium which works best with a cumulative effect…

…over time.

Unlike most supplement brands – who email only a few times per month…

…and put the entire selling burden on a single email.

(That’s just one reason, see more in the “Why I don’t A/B split-test emails… ” email I sent out once – I reuploaded it to my Email Echoes page.)

But all right, enough ice cream for the soul – let the spreadsheet merchants rest for a while.

If you’re one of those folks?

Well, you not only probably won’t find the way I do emails up your alley…